Looks like it just makes it hard to call yourself a "self-employed independent contractor" if you only have one customer and work for them for a very long time.

Looks like it just makes it hard to call yourself a "self-employed independent contractor" if you only have one customer and work for them for a very long time. (As opposed to a contractor who might temp for 6-18 months at a time.) IE, if you are essentially a permanent employee in day-to-day behavior but self-employed on paper. BTW, once I was in a contract-to-hire situation where the hire part kept getting put off and off. I had to politely remind my "client" that they could get in trouble if they put me into the normal performance review system. This does make me wish there would be guidelines about how long "contract-to-hire" and "temp" situations should last. A clearly objective line makes things very easy to discuss and anticipate.